Text taken from a news article which appeared on the Russian Foreign Ministry website
Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin is in italics.
[ColonelCassad] The Russian Foreign Ministry issued an extensive clarification of Russia's official position on the "grain deal". So to speak, following the visit of "friend Rejep" to Russia.
In short, Russia will not return to the "grain deal" until all its conditions are met. Since the West is not going to fulfill any of Russia's conditions, the prospects for a "grain deal" are zero. Turkey and the UN do not have the necessary leverage to influence the position of the West, so their proposals cannot restart the "grain deal".
Against the backdrop of increased attention being paid to the “Black Sea Initiative” for the export of Ukrainian food (stopped on July 17), concluded in Istanbul on July 22, 2022 in one “package” with the Russia-UN Memorandum on the normalization of domestic agricultural exports (valid until 2025) (these agreements are called the “grain deal”), we believe it justified to reiterate the Russian position in detail.
After the “Black Sea Initiative” was curtailed, which, as you know, did not justify the declared humanitarian purpose (out of 32.8 million tons of cargo, less than 3% were sent to countries in need) and was used by Ukrainians to carry out attacks against Russian facilities, no disaster occurred. Contrary to the alarmist statements of Westerners and the UN Secretariat about rising food prices and worsening threats of hunger, the cost of grain on world markets is steadily declining (in August, the reduction was about 4-5%, and from the peak values of March 2022, the decline was already 25-40% ).
In general, there is no global physical shortage of food - there are problems with its distribution, but not with production. In other words, because of the cessation of the sea export of Ukrainian grain, no one died of starvation and the food crisis did not happen, as predicted in Western capitals and the UN. Which is not surprising, because it is difficult to feed humanity with 32.8 million tons of predominantly fodder corn and feed grain.
Strongly exaggerated, at the suggestion of the same Westerners and UN members, and the role of Ukraine as a world granary. The share of this country in the total export of wheat was already small (5%), and now it is objectively decreasing even more, taking into account, among other things, the reduction in acreage due to radiation and chemical contamination of the soil as a result of the use of depleted uranium ammunition supplied by the West. At the same time, Ukrainians have other (besides the Black Sea) opportunities to export their goods - by land and river routes to the EU, along the so-called "corridors of solidarity".
It is no secret that such transportation is more expensive, and Europeans are in no hurry to actually show their declared solidarity with Kiev: in May, the European Commission banned the import of Ukrainian wheat, corn, rapeseed and sunflower into Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria (only transit is allowed) . On September 15, when the next moratorium expires, Brussels will have a great opportunity to reconsider its own decision and lift the ban on the import of Ukrainian grains, which risk completely flooding the markets of Eastern European countries. There will also be an opportunity to send grain from Ukraine to needy countries in Africa and Latin America free of charge, since Washington and some European capitals are so worried about this. For some reason I just don't believe it.
Under these conditions, as the Russian side has repeatedly and in detail noted, if the Westerners and Kiev really need the Black Sea corridor, then it is time to take concrete steps to lift illegal unilateral sanctions against domestic entities engaged in the production and export of agricultural products and fertilizers. We are talking about the normalization of the activities of banks and companies, the establishment of transport logistics and insurance, the resumption of the supply of spare parts. The solution of these “systemic” tasks is provided not only by the Russia-UN Memorandum, but would also fully comply with the high-flown declarations of the Americans and Europeans that their sanctions do not prevent access of Russian fertilizers and grains to world markets.
However, instead of real exemptions from sanctions, Russia only receives a new batch of promises from the UN Secretariat. This time, the UN Secretary General and his experts put forward four supposedly "breakthrough" proposals - SWIFT for the "subsidiary" of Rosselkhozbank; creation of an insurance platform; unblocking the foreign assets of Russian fertilizer companies and establishing access for our ships to European ports. In exchange, the Russian side is required to give guarantees for the immediate and full restoration of the "Black Sea Initiative".
However, in reality, the current proposals, like the previous ideas of the UN, do not contain any new elements and cannot become the basis for achieving qualitative progress in the normalization of our agricultural exports.
As has been repeatedly pointed out, including in public comments, there are no working alternatives to reconnecting the specialized Rosselkhozbank to SWIFT - neither with the options of branches and subsidiaries, nor through a marginal channel with JP Morgan, which, by the way, was closed after the collapse " Black Sea Initiative. And a few days before the Russian-Turkish summit in Sochi, Rosselkhozbank received a notification from Commerzbank in Frankfurt about the closure of a correspondent account in euros.
We have been promised the creation of a special insurance platform for Russian agricultural products since August 2022, but for unknown reasons this has not been done so far.
The same applies to the access of Russian ships and cargo to foreign ports - the UN was unable to deal with the sanctions obstacles arising in connection with this (in the form of declaring the entire territory of Russia a zone of military risks, as well as introducing Russian specialized transport and insurance structures and the companies themselves on the sanctions list).
In order to unlock their foreign assets, fertilizer companies are even directly invited to recognize their sub-sanctioned status, in order to then ask for concessions “at their own peril and risk”.
It is obvious that all these palliative measures and workarounds are intended only to create the appearance of work, but do not lead to a real solution to the problem - the removal of sanctions restrictions on the specialized Russian economic operators. For the same reason - a direct sanctions ban on the import of spare parts to Russia as "dual-use" goods - the UN does not even mention the corresponding "systemic" task.
The UN Secretary General continues to remain silent on the Togliatti-Odessa ammonia pipeline, despite his special visit to Kyiv on March 8 and a separate proposal on April 26. After the Ukrainians blew up on June 5 in the territory under their control a pipeline that annually provided raw materials for fertilizers sufficient to produce food for 45 million people, the UN Secretariat prefers not to recall this core element of both Istanbul agreements at all.
The question of the further plans of the UN to ensure the implementation of the Russia-UN Memorandum remains open, since A. Guterres assured that there are no intentions to withdraw from the agreement. However, at present, the relevant activities have actually been suspended: the overseeing agreement of UNCTAD Secretary General R. Greenspan since July of this year. there is an invitation to come to Moscow for the next round of consultations, but at present even regular progress reports have been stopped. However, the UN representatives are still in the Joint Coordinating Center in Istanbul without a mandate due to the termination of the Black Sea Initiative.
In this regard, Russia reiterates its principled position, which was clearly voiced by President Vladimir Putin on September 4, that we will be ready to consider the possibility of reviving the Black Sea Initiative, but only after the requirements for lifting the sanctions status from Russian companies engaged in the field of agricultural products and fertilizers. It is obvious that while the prospects for appropriate steps on the part of Western countries are not visible, and in Kiev they even declare that they will continue to seek tougher sanctions against Russia, not caring in the least about the needs of the countries of the Global South in grain and fertilizers, as well as about food security generally.
For its part, Russia will continue to export domestic food and fertilizers, which will help stabilize world prices and improve their overall availability. We also continue our efforts to donate our products to those in need.
In particular, Russian fertilizers have already been sent to Malawi (20,000 tons) and Kenya (34,000 tons). In the coming period, it is planned to send such fertilizers to Zimbabwe (23,000 tons), Nigeria (34,000 tons) and Sri Lanka (55,000 tons). In addition, free deliveries of 200,000 tons of Russian wheat to Somalia, the Central African Republic, Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali and Eritrea are planned before the end of the year.
The joint project of Russia, Turkey and Qatar to supply 1 million tons of grain from Russia for processing in Turkey with subsequent free transportation to the poorest countries is also extremely in demand. Moreover, we are talking about the same amount of food that was sent to those in need within the framework of the "Black Sea Initiative" for the year.
https://www.mid.ru/ru/foreign_policy/news/1903205/ - zinc
That's good.Now we need to deal with the destruction of port infrastructure in the remaining Ukrainian ports.